Two Knights
by glimmerkill
Summary: Padme Amidala, a jedi padawan, travels to Tatooine with her master Qui-gon Jinn and finds a slave boy who will change her life forever. She is able to save Qui-gon from Darth Maul and for 10 years she and the boy are Qui-gon's padawans. Now, Darkness is stirring and the young jedi duo must defend the galaxy from threats within and out.


_Padme Amidala, a jedi padawan, travels to Tatooine with her master Qui-gon Jinn and finds a slave boy who will change her life forever. She is able to save Qui-gon from Darth Maul and for 10 years she and the boy are Qui-gon's padawans. Now, Darkness is stirring and the young jedi must defend the galaxy from threats within and out._

Padme felt a warmth in the force as her former fellow padawan entered the meditation room. The small space was bathed in the light of the coruscant sunset shining through a floor to ceiling window, and there was a heavy patterned rug on the floor. Padme smiled but did not open her eyes as Anakin sat down beside her. "Something troubles you," she said calmly, "what is it?"

"...Nothing really. Just...a feeling."

"Remember what our old master always tells us. Never ignore your feelings, Anakin."

Anakin's response was quick and sharp, "Master Yoda wouldn't agree."

Padme giggled. "Master Yoda wouldn't agree with lots of things Master Qui-gon teaches us-butinhe cares about us, and everybody."

"I wonder if he does."

Padme opened her eyes and pursed her lips, turning to face her friend. Gently, she picked up his hands in hers. As her nimble and fair fingers touched his soft, sun kissed skin she felt his warmth swell inside of her. She chose her words diplomatically, as she always tried to. "Anakin, the council have our best interest in mind. But, if you need an ear a little less green than Master Yoda's, you know you can always come to me."

Anakin smiled and looked down pensively at their intertwined hands. Padme could never sense what the young man was feeling, although she never went out of her way to try. "I've been having nightmares, Padme."

Padme furrowed her brow. "For a jedi, a nightmare can be more than simply a bad dream. Tell me, what was the nightmare about?"

"I...I shouldn't dwell on it. The Jedi forbid personal attachments."

"Personal attachments? Oh, Ani...it's your mother, isn't it?"

Anakin's face distorted into a painful grimace and he turned his gaze away from padme, looking out over the city world. "I see her in great pain. She's suffering, and I'm doing nothing."

Before Padme could respond there were a set of footsteps in the hallway, and they both sensed a familiar presence as Master Windu stepped inside the doorway. Padme quickly recollected her hands and clasped them on her lap before he entered the room. Anakin did not look away from the window. "Amidala, Skywalker, does something trouble you?"

Padme hesitated. "...No, Master Windu, just meditating."

"Good. I hope you two aren't alarmed by your old Master's recent talk of sith lords. The Jedi are strong, we would know if a sith lived."

"No, Master Windu. We're looking for the answer to a puzzling situation together, that's all."

"Good, but I'm afraid you'll have to deal with whatever it is later. I have a task for you both."

Without turning around, Anakin muttered, "what task?"

"There have been reports of…" Padme followed Windu's eyes to Anakin's brooding figure, "slave activity on Dantooine. We need you two to _assess_ the situation. Don't do anything, though. You know we can't afford the resources to go up against a possible Hutt presence in a time of war.

The warmth padme felt in the force grew uncomfortably hot and erratic. Padme quickly nodded in an effort to shoo the master away. Windu hesitated, stern expression on his face, but nodded back and left the room. Putting her hand on his shoulder, Padme moved in front of Anakin. "The council forbid from freeing my mother, and now they want us to what? Confirm there are more suffering in the galaxy and we're not going to do anything about it?"

"The council is wise, Anakin. They act in the interest of peace!"

"They don't act!" Anakin leaped to his feet, storming out of the meditation room. Padme let out a deep sigh and hurried after him. "If they want us to visit Dantooine then we'll visit Dantooine."

Rubbing her temples Padme sighed, "and it just so happens Dantooine is in the outer rim, close to Tatooine."

Anakin cracked a half smile.

As Padme and Anakin mounted the shuttle, they felt a calm and soothing presence wash over them. They turned to see a small, weathered figure standing in the doorway of the the docking bay. Anakin brushed his uncombed hair out of his face and attempted to smile at Master Yoda, who simply squinted incredulously at the young knight and carried on his way.

As the shuttle lifted off and the jedi secured themselves in the cockpit, Anakin said offhandedly, "King Palpatine says Yoda should go easier on me, I think he's right. Why do he and Mace always have to look at me like I'm disappointing them!"

"They have high expectations of you, Anakin. You are the-"

"The chosen one, I know. How can I 'restore balance to the force' if they keep holding me back?"

"Anakin the king isn't a jedi he doesn't know what's best for you."

Anakin was silent. He steered the shuttle silently for a moment, gazing out into the starry vistas surrounding them. Padme's chest fell; she had pushed too far. Anakin was sensitive and volatile, just 21 years old and somehow...lost, although his entire future was planned out for him. Padme, on the other hand, took comfort in the force, in the light, it's cooling energy. Still, her heart lead her to sympathize with Anakin. He was a former slave, he knew much more of suffering than she or Yoda could. When Padme first looked upon him on Tatooine, when she was Qui-gon's padawan...she could sense a great power brimming within him. Yet, he labored day and night to provide for himself and his mother, built Shmi a protocol droid to take care of her, and became a Jedi to serve others. Anakin's presence in Padme's world had been revolutionary. She wondered if she had done the same for him.

Anakin once again found himself lost in thought, gazing at Padme's porcelain skin and warm brown hair. Although she was inducted into the order at a young age, Padme had an independent streak, and she wore her long mane of hair in a large bun on top of her head with deviant strands and tendrils flowing down over her rosy white face. When he first saw her all those years ago on Tatooine, he felt an overwhelming sense of peace. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen; where she strode she did with purpose; when she spoke she did with tact; when she fought, she did with ferocity, and when she touched she did so softly. She was an enigma, and an old friend. When the sith apprentice Darth Maul attacked Qui-gon jinn, it was Padme who intervened, decapitating Maul in their duel. Anakin had seen the whole thing; her grace as she danced around him, her ferociousness when she defended her master, and her despair when she realised what she had done. Even for a sith apprentice, Padme mourned deeply. Anakin imagined she was the sort of person butterflies landed on in the spring, and ice melted for in the winter.

Anakin shook his head and focused his attention on piloting the shuttle. These feelings were in direct violation of the jedi code. He focused his thoughts, then, on the lush green planet which loomed ahead. Dantooine was beautiful; it reminded Anakin of Naboo, Padme and Palpatine's home planet. Rolling emerald hills, vast oceans and blue skies...it was much different than the barren and hostile landscape of Tattooine and the bustling city of Coruscant. Recalling the reason he and Padme had been sent to this beautiful place, Anakin's eyes darkened and his grip on the controls tightened. How could the jedi call themselves peacekeepers when they allowed such atrocities to plague the galaxy? When he was young, Anakin decided he would be the greatest jedi to ever live. He wondered, now, just what that would entail. Meditating in the temple whilst the people of the republic suffered?

Anakin guided the shuttle into a small, out of the way spaceport with ease, His dark robe and unkempt hair billowed as he strode swiftly off the exit ramp. He felt Padme's gentle gaze on his back as she glided up beside him. "Let's keep a low profile," she muttered. Anakin turned to her and smiled. Truly, she was the wisest of the jedi, wiser than any who sat on the council. She was right; if they wanted to have a positive impact here they needed to move discreetly, lest they scare the slavers away to another planet.

Presently, Padme's hand grasped Anakin's, a move that was hidden by their large robes. "Look," she said, eyeing something sharply, "there, by the cafe."

Anakin scanned the room. His eyes settled on a dingy window in the wall of the spaceport, through which he could see a lanky nautolen desperately trying to juggle various deep fried foods. There were several uncleaned tables and partially broken chairs sitting outside the window, and two republic officers were sharing a break over one whilst at another an old, weathered man was sitting with a young twi'lek woman. Their relationship was not easy to discern or sense; she was not comfortable with him, that was for sure, and there was definitely a steep difference in authority. The republic officers were chatting loudly, whilst the other pair picked at their food in silence. "Come on," Padme urged, "we should see if those officers know anything. This is the lowest point of Dantooine, if there's a slaving operation we'll find it here."

"Right." Anakin started toward the order window, insisting with a look at padme that this was to keep their cover, though he had to admit he was eager for some hot food after the journey from Coruscant. Padme took a seat at the table next to the officers. The weary nautolan inside approached the window.

"What can i get you?" he asked in broken common. Anakin gazed past the cook and squinted at a grease-stained, flickering menu.

He glanced back at Padme, who had already begun to try to insert herself in the officers' conversation. He smiled and turned back to the cook.

"Are you going to order or what, mooney eyes?"

Anakin glared at the nautolan, who had no place to voice presumptions about him, and muttered, "just some bantha shakes and some ruica." Looking back to Padme for approval, he noticed she was looking at him too. He turned back to the window and waved his hand, saying, "and you will tell me all that you know about slaves on Dantooine."

"Huh? What do you think you are buddy, a jedi? I really do get the worst of the worst down here. That'll be 30 credits."

Scowling, Anakin slapped as much credits on the counter and returned to Padme. She chuckled softly. "Everyone knows you are the worst at jedi mind tricks Anakin. What, were you trying to impress me?"

Anakin smiled. "Would that be so bad?"

Padme's smile faded. "These guys don't know anything," she lamented, deftly changing the subject. "But I sense something wrong here."

"Then Master Windu was correct."

"Yes, but...I mean, here, in this region. We're close…"

At that moment, the nautolan cook came out through a side door carrying an order of shakes and ruica. Obviously exhausted, he moved toward Anakin and Padme's table-when suddenly his foot snagged on a crack in the flooring and he plummeted. Immediately getting up to assist the nautolan, Anakin knelt down beside him and tried in vain to contain frothing blue milk spilled on the floor. Looking up at the cook, something caught his eye; across the eating area, he could see the human and the young twi'lek"s legs under the table. There was a shock bracelet attached to the Twi'lek's leg. Leaping to his feet, Anakin ignited his lightsaber. Unsure of where the danger was but with the utmost trust in Anakin, Padme followed suit, green double-saber at her side.

"Anakin, _what_ are you doing?!"

"...Improvising!"

With that, Anakin vaulted off upward, Lightsaber aloft.


End file.
